Upcoming College Sophomore. Questions about CS and CSE

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hi I am attending UCLA and I have a few questions. I am intending to go into robotics and artificial intelligence but I realize that I am not great at physics (my physics classes are some of the few classes at UCLA I felt totally helpless in), in particular electricity and magnetism stuff. I was considering switching into pure CS but then I wasn't sure if I would be as prepared for a job in robotics. Should I just stick with CSE or should I go into pure CS? BTW, I'm not super great at coding but I actually enjoy it a lot and I don't feel the same way with Physics.</p>

2

<p>UCLA doesn’t have good physics department. My daughter had a teacher who graduated from UCLA and taught her AP Physics. Even though she had an A but she didn’t have confident that she mastered the material. She is now CS instead of CSE major, she is avoiding the Physics class, she can take Chemistry. I’m not sure what to advise you but if you don’t like something that is not a good sign.</p>

3

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Maybe I’m missing something here, but are basing your judgement that UCLA doesn’t have a good physics department solely on the fact that your daughter had a hard time in her high school physics class, which happened to be taught by someone who went to UCLA?</p>

4

<p>Base on experience and because there was a poster UCLAri, he also went to UCLA and UCSD, he wrote their Physics department suck. And take it from UCLA, physics is #19. I think UCSB ranks better than UCLA. UCSD ranks better than UCLA on the second link.</p>

<p><a href=“UCLA graduate programs ranked among nation's best in new U.S. News survey | UCLA”>http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-grad-programs-among-nation-244222&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/physics-rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/physics-rankings&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>I’m not a big fan of rankings but seriously?! Since when does being ranked 19th in the US mean you have a bad department? And I don’t think it’s helpful to make sweeping judgments that are solely based on anecdotal evidence posted to a forum.</p>

<p>Darthpwner, did you struggle with the math in physics? Or just understanding the concepts?</p>

6

<p>No sweeping judgments but it’s my personal experience to tell me UCLA probably is not great at teaching Physics. Getting a passing grade at UCLA means you didn’t understand anything and still can graduate with a degree in Physics and then go on to teach more crappy stuff to high school students. Fundamentally things were not taught right at UCLA is my guess. Yes, it’s a forum and I can pass anecdote evidence, so what are you a police.
Rankings 19th is not bad but it’s not great considering this is a number 2 UC, so in relative to other UC, it’s bad. </p>

7

<p>@ulianjay‌ Hi, it was more than mathematical derivations of the equations in Physics if anything. I understood a lot of the concepts, and talking with the professor during office hours about conceptual questions made a lot of sense to me, but I’ve always struggled with the math side.</p>

<p>EDIT: For me though, electricity and magnetism makes sense when I see it practically like in 4BL or when I’m working on Arduino projects with my dad, but I can’t really make sense of things in my mind because electricity and magnetism seems kind of abstract to me. </p>

8

<p>Was physics the only class that you struggled with math in? How much calculus have you taken? Many people find electricity and magnetism to be the hardest part of physics, so don’t feel like you’re alone.</p>